The Amalekites Defeated

⁸ The Amalekites^(A) came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.^{(B) 9} Moses said to Joshua,^(C) “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff^(D) of God in my hands.”

¹⁰ So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur^(E) went to the top of the hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,^(F) but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. ¹² When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.^{(G) 13} So Joshua overcame the Amalekite^(H) army with the sword.

⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain^(A) of God. ⁶ Jethro had sent word to him, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

⁷ So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down^(B) and kissed^(C) him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. ⁸ Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships^(D) they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved^(E) them.

¹³ The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”

²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. ²⁵ He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders^(A) of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.^{(B) 26} They served as judges^(C) for the people at all times. The difficult cases^(D) they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.^(E)

²⁷ Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.^(F)